


The Doctor's Family

by damnednforsaken (bettythetl)



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who/Die Hard 4 Crossover, Live Free or Die Hard (2007)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-23
Updated: 2011-10-23
Packaged: 2017-11-03 03:34:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/376664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bettythetl/pseuds/damnednforsaken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>The first time Matthew Farrell met one of the most interesting men he ever knew, he was twelve years old.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Doctor's Family

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the Fic Tac Toe 2011 challenge over at [](http://sexy-right.livejournal.com/profile)[**sexy_right**](http://sexy-right.livejournal.com/). Again. Late. This is also a prequel to my Big Bang that I never wrote, and it didn't end up quite where I wanted it to. Features young!Matt and Matt's family.

The first time Matthew Farrell met one of the most interesting men he ever knew, he was twelve years old. He wasn't quite a teenager, but puberty was on its way, showing in the way his body was shooting up from its former short stature and in the way his voice got a little bit deeper. The other kids picked on him for his almost unnatural skill with computers and for the way his voice cracked when he started to get excited about something. Running from yet another round of "Let's Beat Up the Freak," Matt found himself in an alley with nowhere to run and with nothing inside it but a dumpster and a battered blue box that had the words POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX blazoned across the top of it.

Not taking the time to think it over, Matt darted towards the box, shoving open the door and running inside without bothering to examine his surroundings. He shut the door behind him, pressing his body against the door as he pleaded quietly, "Please don't let them get in. _Please_ don't let them get _in_!" His thin fingers were spread, palms flat against the wood of the door, and his eyes were tightly closed as if willing himself to disappear. Matt heard his tormentors' shouts and jeers stop abruptly as they entered the alley and didn't catch sight of him. The banging of the dumpster lid as it was opened and closed reached Matt's ears, and he flinched violently, giving a soft cry of fright. His entire body tensed after he made the sound as he waited for the bullies to catch up with him, yank open the door, and beat him all over again.

After waiting a few more minutes, Matt dared to relax slightly, thinking that the boys chasing him had gone away. Terror set in, however, when the door rattled slightly before beginning to open. Matt jumped back, intending to make himself as small as possible in the corner of the box when his back hit a metal railing instead of wood as he was expecting. With another cry, this time of surprise, Matt finally turned around and looked at the inside of the box. Eyes open wide and mouth open even wider, the young man stared at the interior of the blue box, unable to believe what he was seeing.

As Matt took in the massive arches surrounding what looked like a flying saucer pinned to the floor by a giant, glowing column, he stepped forward a little bit, intending to get a closer look. As he reached what he recognized as a control panel of some kind, Matt stretched out his hand, running it over one of the levers. A small spark of electricity arced through his hand and up his arm, making him yelp in surprise. Giggling broke out behind him, and Matt whirled around, trying to place the noise. Immediately, he saw the source as a tall, redheaded woman next to a rather skinny man in a fitted blue suit and a long wool coat.

Matt recognized the man right away, but by the blank shock on the man's face, he obviously didn't know Matt. "What? _What_?" the tall, skinny man asked.

"D'you say that whenever someone shows up in here you didn't expect?" the redheaded woman asked in return.

Matt was struck by their English accents, and he knew then that the man was who Matt thought he was. As per usual, Matt's brain-to-mouth filter stopped working as he burst out excitedly, "Are you the Doctor and Donna?" Seeing their shock, Matt rushed on, "Well, my mom told me all about you and all you did! She told me how awesome you are and how much you've helped us. Can I come with you like she was going to? Oh please, can I? She told me she'd take me up when I got older and I'm almost 13 now! Surely that's old enough, don't you th—" Matt was abruptly silenced by a hand on his mouth. He looked up at the owner of the hand with wide eyes, taking in the amused look that Donna was shooting the Doctor as she covered the boy's mouth to stop his babbling.

"Are you related to this kid? He babbles like you do!" Donna joked, not noticing the way that Matt tensed beneath her hand or the way the Doctor's eyes narrowed at the boy's reaction.

"Where're your parents?" The Doctor stared hard at the boy, who squirmed under the regard as Donna moved her hand so Matt could answer.

"Dad's at home taking care of my little brothers and sisters, and Mom is on a trip right now." Matt's answer was purposely vague about his mother, and his eyes cut to the side to avoid the Doctor's gaze.

"How did you get in here anyway?" Donna's voice sounded behind Matt, curious and admiring in equal measure. The Doctor told her before that nothing and no one could get through those doors without a key, something the boy obviously did not have.

"I just opened the door," Matt said, his voice nervous because he didn't know what Donna wanted him to say.

"How did you get in here without a key?" the Doctor questioned, his eyes narrowed at Matt. There was no possible way that Matt could have just opened the door, not without a key. At least that's what he always told his Companions. The only other way someone could get inside the TARDIS was if he or she had Time Lord blood, specifically _his_ Time Lord blood. The only way that could have possibly happened would be if Jenny were alive, and he and Donna knew that couldn't happen because the blonde had been too much like him.

Matt was really getting nervous at this point because he had heard stories from his mother about how smart his grandfather was, and he knew it was only a matter of time before he realised who Matt was. "I told you how I got in. What else you want to know?" Matt asked curtly. He was debating whether or not to wriggle out of Donna's hold and to make a run for it but one look at the Doctor's face had him deciding that that was not the best plan.

"You expect me to believe you just walked in with no key and nothing else?" The Doctor was looking at Matt with his eyebrows raised and his brown eyes wide as if he had never seen something quite like Matt before. He moved closer to the young man, oblivious to the increased shifting that Matt was doing under Donna's hands, and he peered into the young man's eyes, not quite sure what he was looking for until he found it. There were gold flecks in Matt's eyes that seemed to swirl as the Doctor got closer, and the Doctor had to fight not to draw back in surprise as he realized what exactly was causing those flecks. "What did you say your mother's name was?"

"I didn't."

"Now would be a good time to do that." The Doctor gave Matt a sharp look in return for the boy’s own mutinous expression. Donna looked back and forth between the two of them, similarities in their faces and the stubborn set to their respective jaws striking her once more. Matt looked especially stubborn, and it seemed as if he wouldn’t answer the Doctor’s question until the young man opened his mouth and answered.

“Jennifer Donna Farrell.” Matt’s eyes were resigned, his excitement from earlier all but gone. His mother was going to absolutely _kill_ him when she found out, and he knew she would. He may be her first born, but that wouldn’t save him from the trouble he was going to get into when she found out he’d talked to his grandfather. She had told him time and again when she told her stories that if he ever met his grandfather, he was to take the Time Lord to meet her straight away without letting his tendency to babble get the better of him. That plan was a dead one at that point, so Matt just decided to let his actions carry him off, as it were.

The Doctor reeled back from Matt as if the twelve-year-old slapped him. The shock on his face wouldn’t have been out of place if Matt _had_ slapped him. “No. No no no. That’s not possible. It _can’t_ be,” the Doctor denied quietly even though both of his hearts beat faster at the possibility of his daughter still being alive. He looked into Matt’s eyes, reading the truth there as easily as he could in his own face. Tentatively, the Doctor reached out and placed both hands on Matt’s shoulders, once more looking into the young man’s dark eyes, this time with something akin to wonder. “Can we see her?” the Doctor asked, his voice almost desperate.

Matt pushed aside any niggling feelings at the look on his grandfather’s face and reached up to cover the Doctor’s hands on his shoulders with his own hands. Electricity arced through both of them at the touch and Matt gasped as he felt his secondary heart beat faster for a second then return to as slow as it normally was. The Doctor noticed the look on Matt’s face and pressed a hand to the right side of Matt’s chest, feeling for a heartbeat there and blinking dazedly when he felt one, sluggish though it was. The normally exuberant Time Lord seemed to regain his usual self after a moment, pulling the gangly twelve-year-old into a tight hug with a rough laugh mixed with so many emotions that neither Donna nor Matt could decipher them all. Chief among those emotions, however, was the sheer joy the Doctor felt at finding a member of his family, and Matt felt his former excitement returning to him once more at the sound.

Matt’s eyes began to glow with a light Donna recognized from her time with the Doctor as Matt finally nodded in response to the Doctor’s question. “Yeah! Can we use this to go right there?” Matt paused for a second, looking down at the floor sheepishly then back up as he added, “I’d rather not run into those bullies again.” A hard look flashed over the Doctor’s face at the thought of anyone terrorizing his grandson, but he pushed the dark emotions away in favor of bounding over to the TARDIS’ controls.

“Stand over there, m’lad, and pull that lever when I say,” the Doctor instructed, pulling levers and pressing buttons after typing in a few commands. He paused in his almost manic motions as he looked up at Matt and said, “By the way, what’s _your_ name? Oh, and your address of course.”

Matt rattled off his address and name eagerly enough, waiting for his cue to pull the lever after Donna let him go so he could stand in front of the controls. The redheaded English woman smiled at the two of them, glad to see light once more in the Doctor’s eyes. That light dimmed quite considerably once they left Messaline after Jenny died (or so they’d thought), and they dropped Martha off to live her normal life, making Donna worry about her Doctor. She planned to stay with the Time Lord as long as he needed her, and she felt that the Doctor had needed someone like her for a very long time; he needed a Companion, sure, but he needed a friend more, one that would stop him before he went too far, as she had on many occasions.

Donna was shaken out of her musings at the laughter erupting from the twelve-year-old at the Doctor’s antics as he bounced around the controls, pressing this and tweaking that before turning back to Matt with a grin and nodding at the lever. Matt pulled the lever in front of him hard and held on for dear life as the central column began to churn and grinding noises rang out throughout the TARDIS. Donna backed up and held onto the railing behind her tightly, grinning at the two by the controls as she waited for the TARDIS to set down with its usual thump.

Once the TARDIS settled, Matt scrambled towards the door after grabbing the Doctor’s hand and pulling him along on his mad dash for the outside world. Donna laughed at the image of The Doctor’s being dragged along somewhere new for once. Matt babbled as he led the strange party of three out of the alley behind his house and through the back fence to the nicely sized yard where two little girls were playing with a jump rope as two boys older than the girls but younger than Matt held it. Their blonde curls bounced as the two girls jumped in the center of the rope, chanting the lines of a rather unusual children’s rhyme. There was something about a dog with no nose and a lord over time, but the two older boys holding the rope paid it no mind. They laughed at their little sisters’ antics as a bright tenor voice sang along as its owner came outside bearing a tray with lemonade and cookies.

The children stopped their game at the sound and rushed to the man that could only be their father. His dark, curly hair swung into his eyes as they crinkled with laughter behind dark, plastic framed glasses. Matt rushed to join his family and the Doctor and Donna watched the happy family, their expressions a stark contrast to each other: Donna’s smile grew into a full grin as she watched the children and their father while the Doctor seemed to freeze where he stood. Five? There were five children? And all of them his Jenny’s? As if sensing the Doctor’s distress, Matt turned to them, a grin on his face as he beckoned them forward.

“Come on over!” he cried, any tension he had from earlier completely dissipated as he sat in one of the chairs on the patio with one of the little girls in his lap and one of the other boys trying to join her. “That’s my dad, Sam. This is my five-year-old little sister, Georgiana, and her twin is over there in Dad’s lap; she’s Roseanna, but we call her Rosie. Um…” Matt paused to steady the boy in his lap, though it was a tight fit with the three of them. Matt hugged him close as he continued, “This is Johnny; he’s seven.” The little boy raised a chocolate stained hand in a wave, a bright grin shining on his face from under an unkempt mop of brown hair. “Over there in the other chair is Will, who’s ten.” Matt beamed at his younger brother who seemed to be rather busy eating his cookies and drinking his lemonade to bother looking up, but the Doctor studied the bent head with an intense look of curiosity in his eyes. “Of course, you know me, and I’m twelve,” Matt finished at last with a proud look as he sat back, steadying his siblings as they jolted at his movement.

Sam had a look of surprise on his face as he watched his son, usually so reticent around strangers, introduce his family without so much as a by-your-leave to him. As he had a lap full of a five-year-old steadily munching her way through several cookies, Sam merely nodded to the pair of them. “As my son was so quick to point out, I’m Sam. Can I ask who you are?”

The Doctor watched with a slight smile as a blush stole over Matt’s face at the indirect censure before he stepped forward with Donna close behind and said, “I’m the Doctor, and this is Donna, Donna Noble. Matt found us when he was on his way home from school.”

Any further conversation was cut off as the sound of someone moving around inside caught everyone else’s attention. “Hello? Are you outside already?” a woman called, her voice smooth and slightly accented. Beside Donna, the Doctor stiffened as he turned to watch the door with rapt attention. A woman with straight blonde hair came out of the back door, an easy smile on her face as she took in the sight of her family enjoying an after school snack. She raised her eyes from them and the people gathered saw her stiffen with shock before her smile morphed into a broad grin at the sight of Donna and the Doctor. “Dad! Donna!” the woman cried before running down the steps of the patio to where the two still stood. She threw her arms around the both of them, hugging them close and laughing exuberantly.

The Doctor got over his shock quickly, hugging his daughter close and trying to remember how to breathe. “Jenny!” he gasped quietly, burying his face in her neck as she transferred the hug completely to him. They stood there clinging to one another before he pulled back to look at her. Her wild fire was still there in her eyes, but she seemed more settled than when he last saw her. Having a family must have done that to her, and the Doctor was glad to see her happy. No lines showed on her face, but her eyes were a bit older. “How long?” he asked, voice somewhat hoarse. He was vaguely aware of Matt and Sam shepherding the younger children inside the house with the promise of more cookies in a bit, but his main attention was on his daughter.

“Fifteen years. I got caught up in a war with the Time Agency after I’d traveled for a bit. One of the agents gave me his vortex manipulator to get me out of there, and I used the emergency teleport. I knew I wanted to go to Earth because of what you and Donna mentioned about the planet, so I picked some time near the end of the twentieth century, Earth, and jumped it.” Jenny ignored her father’s almost panicked stare at the mention of the Time Agency as she continued, “I met Sam and we fell in love and got married.” She knew there was more to tell, but she didn’t have time for it just then. “How long for you since Messaline?” she asked, nearly afraid of the answer.

“A few hours. We only just dropped off Martha, the other woman with us.” Donna added the last at Jenny’s confused look. The Doctor seemed incapable of speech for a moment before he seemed to realize all at once that not only was his daughter alive and unharmed, but he was a grandfather. That look Donna previously called “Dad Shock” returned again, only this time, she mentally dubbed it “Granddad Shock.” She kept her opinion to herself, though, as she began to laugh at the look on his face. He shot her an exasperated look as if he knew what she was thinking, and Jenny looked at them both with a smile.

“Well, come on in and meet everyone properly!” Jenny said, grabbing both of them and dragging them inside behind her. They had much to discuss, but that was for another time. Now was for family.

Before Donna and the Doctor left, the Doctor took Matt aside. Pulling a key on a chain out of his seemingly endless pockets, the Doctor handed the twelve-year-old the key with a solemn look on his face. “You know you can get into the TARDIS without this because you’re my grandson, but I want you to have this. You can use it to hide when you don’t want to be seen as long as you don’t move too quickly, and when you find someone you trust above all others, give them this so I’ll know who is safe to talk to. You can’t tell anyone what your mother has told you, outside of the family. Understand?” Matt’s eyes were wide with surprise, but his face was determined and earnest as he nodded and put the chain around his neck, tucking the key under his shirt. The young man surprised them both as he darted forward, hugging the Doctor fiercely before darting back inside.

Both the Doctor and Donna had grins on their faces as they returned to the TARDIS, hoping they would see Matt and his family again soon. What they didn’t know was that it would be another thirteen years for Matt until they saw each other again after Matt was a hero in his own right, and they had to team up with the Doctor’s former Companions and a living action hero to save the universe. But that’s another story.

**_Fin. (For now.)_ **


End file.
